Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton marked Human Rights Day yesterday with a
historic speech on international gay rights.

Said Clinton to a U.N. audience in Switzerland: "Being LGBT
does not make you less human, and that is why gay rights are
human rights, and human rights are gay rights."

Clinton added: "I speak about this subject knowing that my own
country’s record on human rights for gay people is far from
perfect."

Clinton also announced that the U.S. will use both diplomacy and
$3 million in foreign aid to help the global fight for gay
rights, not a huge some to be sure, but imagine the Sec. of State
announcing any foreign aid being spent on gay rights
abroad.

One wonders if Clinton's "unprecedented"
speech is in part an attempt to make up for President Obama's
somewhat unreliable record on gay rights. While the
President oversaw the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' he has
shied away from the gay marriage debate only going so far as to
say he is "still
working on it." (Translation: Wait until my second term.)

Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to
protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied
in too many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an
invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even
executed. Many are treated with contempt and violence by their
fellow citizens while authorities empowered to protect them look
the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse. They are
denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from their homes
and countries, and forced to suppress or deny who they are to
protect themselves from harm.

I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and
dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the
remaining human rights challenges of our time. I speak about this
subject knowing that my own country’s record on human rights for
gay people is far from perfect. Until 2003, it was still a crime
in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have endured
violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some,
including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily
experiences. So we, like all nations, have more work to do to
protect human rights at home.